Pieces Of Time
by regalfangirl
Summary: While watching Emma sleep, Regina reminisces over her life with the blonde and how she's found herself in a blissful bubble of happiness ever since the blonde entered her life. Even after all this time. Fluffy SwanQueen.


**_A/N: This is just a little fluff I wrote at 3am when my thoughts were running wild. I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless. And as always, reviews are highly appreciated. Much love, xo._**

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It was the sunlight dancing across her face that woke Regina that morning. She tried to ignore it, willing herself back to sleep by squeezing her eyes tightly shut, but her mind was alive and so she was awake. She squinted one eye open, eyeing her alarm clock only to see it was merely 6:30am in the morning. She sighed deeply as she silently cursed her inability to sleep in during the weekends, her inner clock too accustomed to her early awakenings during the week.

It was the muffled grumble coming from the right side of the queen sized bed that made Regina pay attention to Emma. The blonde was splayed out on the bed in her famous starfish form, a position Regina would never understand how Emma could sleep in. One arm lay heavily across Regina's middle, and it was only then did she notice that Emma had the brunette's legs trapped under the weight of one of her own. Regina chuckled silently. Since the very first time Emma slept over, Regina had found herself waking up exactly like this. Even when dead to the world, Emma couldn't keep her hands off Regina.

She wasn't complaining, no, quite the opposite. The endearing way in which Emma slept had made her mornings that much brighter ever since she'd first invited the blonde into her bed. It hadn't been long until she'd realized she wanted to keep it that way. A small smile spread across Regina's face as she watched Emma's heavy breathing, the unruly locks covering her face blowing in the air of her exhaling. With a chuckle, Regina gently brushed Emma's face free of hair, her smile widening when she was able to see more of the blonde's beautiful face. Yes, quite quickly she'd realized just how happy Emma made her, and how much she wanted her to stay in her life.

Regina moved, very gently, onto her side so she could watch Emma from a better angle. The heat radiating from the blonde was almost suffocating, but Regina didn't care. It was like this, with Emma almost on top of her, that she felt safer than ever before.

She'd made it a ritual of some sort, to watch Emma sleep. Not that she planned it this way, but after the blonde had moved in and they'd started their morning routines together, Regina had found herself always waking before the alarm, able to watch as Emma slept those last sometimes ten, sometimes thirty minutes. It was Regina's little secret, even still. She found such comfort in watching Emma's peaceful face, how her eyelids vibrated as she dreamt, how she murmured inaudible but adorable words, and how she sometimes yanked Regina closer to her, nestling into the crook of her neck.

Even after this long, Regina would feel just as light hearted and in love when she watched Emma, as she had the first time she had done so. She bit her bottom lip in contemplation before she reached a tentative hand towards Emma's face and ran a finger over soft, pale lips. The blonde stirred in her sleep but didn't wake up. It took more than that, that much Regina knew.

It was in that moment, feeling Emma's lips against her fingertips, that she suddenly remembered.

It was the rushed drive home after dinner and stumbled crashing of lips and tearing at clothes that had led Regina to forget to shut the blinds before her and Emma had fallen into bed, skin bare and hearts wild as they engulfed in each other like only they knew how.

Regina chuckled. It was amazing, really. How after ten years of marriage they were still every bit as crazy about each other as they had been during the first weeks of their relationship. Emma would still surprise Regina by sweeping her off her feet with grand gestures or even just small, thoughtful ones.

Like that one morning, when the coffee machine broke and Regina was late for an important meeting that would only get that much more tiring without her morning coffee. Emma had poked her head into the conference room not five minutes after the meeting had started, not even bothering to apologize to the ten other people in the room, before placing a takeaway coffee cup of Regina's regular in front of her and a quick kiss to the bruntte's cheek, heading out of the room as quickly as she'd entered it.

That had left Regina all but baffled, and she'd stared into the air of the conference room, cheeks blushed and heart warm, until someone had cleared their throat, tearing her back to reality. Regina had showed her gratitude to Emma that night, which had led to the incident of the broken bedside lamp.

It was small things like these that kept Regina every bit as in love, as she had been all those years back. She didn't have to ask Emma to know the blonde felt the same. The way she would meet Regina in the hallway in an almost run when she came home after long days at the office, throwing the brunette into an embrace with the words _"I've missed you,"_ whispered into Regina's ear, told her as much. Or the way her emerald eyes would light up every time Regina told her that she loved her. Or simply the way she held her in her sleep.

Regina smiled fondly as she studied Emma's face again. Her nostrils flared when she slept, and the worried wrinkles she'd get between her eyes every time Henry didn't pick up his phone at College were smoothed out by the peace of her sleep.

Not for the first time, Regina wondered how he had grown up so fast. She still remembered reading him bedtime stories, or scolding him when he stole treats from the kitchen cabinet, or kissing a booboo to make him stop crying. Now he was all but a grown man, shipped off to college, and the house still felt so empty without him sometimes.

Once he'd started high school, Emma and herself did discuss the option of getting another child, but for some unspoken reason, they'd quickly decided that they were more than satisfied with it being just the three of them. That's how it had started, and that's how it should be.

Now, Regina did miss the life a child brought into the home, but not enough to make her reconsider. She'd get used to it, that she was sure of. And she had Emma to keep her company. She couldn't ask for more.

The blonde stirred in her sleep, and Regina kept perfectly still, not wanting to wake up her gorgeous wife just yet. It was Sunday after all, and as per ritual, Emma got to sleep in, without Regina nagging her about making something of the day and dragging her to art galleries or antique auctions. Occasionally, Emma would pick what to do and Regina would find herself decked in a paper jump suit and covered in paint as Emma fired an endless stream of paintballs at her, laughing until she could barely breathe. Safe to say, Regina wasn't any good at the game, but if watching her wife so carefree and practically glowing with glee wasn't reward enough, nothing ever would be. Regina was well aware that Emma would always be a child, and she wasn't complaining. The blonde brought the child out in Regina, and that was something no one else had ever mastered.

So as she watched Emma enjoy the last minutes of her well deserved sleep, she wondered if their life was always going to be like this. So happy and without trouble. Sure, they had their enormous fights once in a while, and a few things that neither one of them meant would often be said, but they had a good thing going. They had an amazing thing going. However they made it work, Regina wasn't sure, but they did, and she wasn't shy to admit that Emma was the best thing that had ever happened to her. What she had done to deserve a blessing embodied in this beautiful idiot, she would probably never know. She was just forever grateful that Emma had chosen to see the good in her, when no one else would.

Regina couldn't help herself any longer, and she gently stroked Emma's cheek, cupping it in her hand before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss to the blonde's warm lips. Emma stirred and when Regina pulled back she saw a faint, sleepy smile start to spread on the blonde's face./div

Two very heavy green eyes fluttered open.

"Hi," Emma said hoarsely.

"Good morning," Regina said, her smile evident in her voice.

"I thought today was my day off," Emma said, a goofy grin on her face even as her eyes fell shut again.

"I just need to tell you something," Regina all but whispered.

"Oh?" Emma said, opening her eyes, a hint of worry in them.

Regina leaned forward and placed another kiss to Emma's lips.

"I love you."

Emma's face split in a smile and she chuckled lightly, pushing Regina closer to her and burying her face in brown locks.

"I love you too," Emma said, kissing Regina's hair.

Shimmeying a bit up in bed, Emma placed Regina's head in the crook of her neck and stroked the brunette's back.

"But now let me sleep."

Regina laughed heartely, wrapping an arm over Emma's middle and squeezing her in a one armed hug.

"Yes, dear."

Emma fell back asleep in an instant, and Regina found herself lulled by the gentle rise and fall of Emma's chest and the comforting smell radiating off her neck and hair. She smiled to herself as she closed her eyes, knowing that this was one of many mornings to come where she wouldn't be able to drag Emma out of bed before 9am.

And she didn't want it any other way.


End file.
